Page 1 of The Buck Stops Hare

Chapter One

Buck

I hadn’t seen a child as adorable as Vida in all my life. Her eyes, a soft sort of brown and gold, glittered from apple cheeks and sweet cherubic features. Finding moments I could steal her away from her fathers, Storm or Rayne, were few and far between, and even then, I had to hope River wasn’t sneaking about. He had a fascination with the babe that he couldn’t shake, not that I blamed him. I loved her, too.

Storm and River, my brothers by rights, fellow godbeasts in the eyes of our mother earth, were strange, but welcome, company.

Pecker, Rayne’s pet bantam cockerel, flew up onto a porch railing and strutted closer. He nipped a few mosquitoes out of the air.

My chick is large. My flock is proud of her.

Vida made a little tut of noise that made pecker cant his little head and blink.

Very smart chick. May not be strong yet, but she is smart. I should crow, but my hen needs rest.

So, it was there at four in the morning, the orange hues of the early sky fighting the gray horizon, that I found myself coddling her on the front porch. I rocked in the creaky old swing while she peeped up at me, hand clutched to my hairless arm. Her soft, brown skin tone so much more muted than my own earthen one. “Little lifebringer, godchild. Our mother smiles on you. I hear her in the earth and smell her in the wind. She is pleased that a goddess will walk among us once more.”

Vida responded with a grunt of infantile acknowledgement, which I took for agreement. At three weeks old, she had apersonality that was shining through…or a bowel movement. I couldn’t decide. Her eyes crinkled and lips pursed.

Bowel movement.

I rocked her gently and walked inside to carry her past Rayne’s room to their washroom, where he’d set up a change table. Ida Maye had walked me through the diapering process a few times and I’d become proficient at it after I’d handed her off to Rayne twice, unsure of what to do. Rayne needed sleep, though, so I cleaned her up, swapped diapers, rinsed the cloth diaper insert off, and threw it in the sanitation bucket. Neither Storm nor I would tolerate plastic on Vida, plastic that would pollute our earth.

She fussed only marginally, and I could tell that she’d probably be fussing for breakfast soon. Rayne was dead on his feet, and I should have woken him up to feed her, but I could warm one of his bottles up easily enough.

I muddled through the process, and Storm caught me just as I’d tested the milk’s temperature and reached out to take her with a smile.

“Thank you for getting her to settle. Rayne is very tired.” Storm adjusted little Vida in his arms, and his full lips stretched into a gracious smile. “And you changed her. Bless.”

“Well, yeah. Ida Maye said it was rude of me to keep making Rayne do it.” I folded my arms and watched her squirm.

“We need to talk.” Storm’s face went stern as he gestured us out of the house, Vida nursing her bottle happily while they strolled out of earshot. “Rayne’s worked up over his brother and he’s up Ohio way, still. Not answered his phone or responded to emails. Do we know anyone up that way that can go find him? We don’t have an address, so they’d have to search, just his school—”

I knew what he was asking. He wanted me to go sniff around Rayne’s hometown and use the earth to find him. I always wasa good tracker. River was better, but he was so much older and less human than either of us that it wasn’t a great idea. River knew all that touched water.

“I’ll do it.” I sighed and stretched, kicking off my boots before digging toes into the fertile ground there. Storm’s lands felt powerful, the raw energy of worship alive and familiar. They loved me, too, his worshipers. And Storm never minded sharing. He was kind like that.

“It means the world to me—us.” Storm offered a half smile. “I’m worried Grim Dawn has made good on his threats.”

My heart, if it could be called such, fluttered uncomfortably. Something in my magic unsettled at that. I didn’t want to see Rayne sad, and he would be if his brother got involved.

A meeting of roosters. Hello flock.Pecker, having given up on being the roo in charge, had decided that he was one of three roosters that menaced the area. They were all flock. They shared a chick and many hens.

Save for River. The water godbeast struck fear into Pecker’s very core, and the little one regarded the Drowning River’s mate, Whispering Brook, as a very powerful rooster. It had to be to protect such a strong and scary hen, by his logic.

Storm clicked his tongue, and Pecker flew up to his shoulder before nestling down, keeping a watchful eye on theirchick.

“I’ll head out and do as I’m asked—” I said, staring Storm down. “But when I return, I get to take Vida and Clay on a playdate.” The packmates that had named their child for my element had indebted me to their pack, and in a way, their own bloodline. Having her play with my namesake would be adorable.

“I don’t think babes play this young.” Storm frowned. “But I see no harm in trying.”

I gave a nod and slipped my boots back on before letting myself go. As Storm became clouds and floated away, I becamedust in the wind, scattering myself away, heading toward a land I’d not been to in ages, a godless place.Ohio.

Chapter Two

Cliff

The raging music of the club pounded in my ears as I leaned over the polished bar counter, scrubbing circles into the laminate top as some girl batted her fake lashes at me hard enough to fan a nice breeze my way. I wanted to be into women so badly, but nothing ever really stuck out. My dick just didn’t perk up for girls as much as I’d tried and guys were okay, sometimes. Maybe.

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